Underfloor heating: is it the world’s most desirable heating solution? From the comfort of warmed floors to the efficiency of radiant heat, the virtues of underfloor heating are well known and universally appealing. Who wouldn’t rather forgo the chill of winter tiles for the comfort of a gently heated bathroom floor? And who could resist the ambient warmth of a living room heated from the floor upwards?
At Heatingpoint, we are enthusiastic converts to underfloor heating – and we’ve got a range to match. Our speciality is electric underfloor heating. Cheaper and easier to install than wet underfloor heating, it’s the system of choice for retro-fitting projects. This means we can help as many people as possible experience the joys of underfloor heating, without having to rip up their sub-floor!
Electric underfloor heating is also the best choice if you want to have a crack at installing your underfloor heating DIY. Whilst you’ll always need a qualified electrician to make the final connections, up to 90% of most underfloor heating projects can be completed without any professional expertise – a great way to bring down the costs of your building project. With that in mind, we’ve crammed our site full of useful information, from quick-guides on every product page to our extensive underfloor heating buying guide. If you’re still left with questions, our expert sales advisors are on hand throughout the week to help you with any queries.
We’ve made it easy for you to get started by setting our site up so you can browse systems by floor type. Whatever the floor covering you’re planning to use above your underfloor heating, we’ll show you which systems are compatible. So, without further ado, here’s our range!
Tile & Stone Floors
Tiled floors are the most popular floor covering for use with underfloor heating – and with good reason. Tiled and stone floors conduct and retain heat better than any other floor type, providing you with a system that heats up as quickly and efficiently as possible. Tiles can also withstand higher temperatures than other floor coverings, so you can heat to higher temperatures than with other floor types. This is especially useful in draughty, hard-to-heat rooms such as conservatories and high-ceilinged rooms
There are two main types of underfloor heating system that can be used with tile and stone floors: loose cables and sticky mats.
Loose Cables
Loose cables are the most rudimentary electric underfloor heating systems. The cables must be spaced out across your floor by hand. This is a fairly time consuming process, but it does allow you to easily fit the cables around obstructions and awkwardly shaped rooms. You can then tile straight over the top, or cover the cables in levelling compound to create a new concrete floor over which any floor covering can be fitted. Loose cable kits are most popular in small rooms with lots of obstacles to heat around, such as bathrooms.
Warmup Loose Wire Underfloor Heating Kits
As the biggest name in the underfloor heating market, Warmup need no introduction. With 21 years’ experience selling underfloor heating in over 60 countries, Warmup lead the market with the thinnest cable currently available. Their Loose Cables are just 2mm thick, providing an exceptionally low profile that will not noticeably raise your floor height. The kits also come with Warmup’s unique SafetyNet installation guarantee: if you make a mistake whilst installing, Warmup will replace the whole kit free of charge. (Naturally, terms and conditions apply!)
Warmup Loose Wire Kits come with a lifetime warranty. Kit combinations are available for room sizes up to 12m2. Prices start at £109.99 for a 1.5m2 floor space.
Vario Pro Loose Wire Underfloor Heating Kits
Manufactured by up-and-coming underfloor heating experts Thermogroup, Vario Pro Loose Wire kits offer an extra level of convenience and usability to would-be installers. All Vario Pro kits come with a reel of heating cable and a roll of waterproof, dimpled membrane. Once the membrane is laid, the heating cable simply clicks into place. Not only is this faster than spacing cables by hand, the membrane can also be used as a fully waterproof tanking system in wet rooms. Rather than laying your underfloor heating cables on top of a separate tanking system, Vario Pro incorporates these two functions into one, reducing the height build-up and saving you time.
Vario Pro gives you the opportunity to lay the cables in one of two cable configurations. Laying the cables three dimples apart provides gentle 130w/m2 heating, sufficient for floor heating. Laying the cables two dimples apart provides powerful 195w/m2 heating, enough to keep even the draughtiest bathroom warm from floor to ceiling. Kit combinations are available for room sizes up to 11m2, with 130w/m2 spacing, or 8m2 using 195w/m2 spacing. All Vario Pro kits come with a lifetime warranty. As a guide to price, a kit large enough to heat a 3.2m2 room at 195w/m2 spacing, with cable and membrane included, comes to £349.98.
Sticky Mats
Sticky mats offer all the advantages of loose wire heating but with added convenience. When you choose a sticky mat, the cables come pre-spaced on a self-adhesive mesh. Then all you have to do is unroll the mat over the floor, cutting the matting at the ends of the room so you can go around corners. This saves a lot of time and hassle and ensures your system gives off an even level of heat throughout the room.
Warmup Sticky Mat Underfloor Heating Kits
Warmup’s best-selling Sticky Mat utilises their ultra-thin 2mm cable and a strong-holding self-adhesive mesh which can nevertheless be easily re-positioned. The cables are pre-spaced to provide 150w/m2 heating, which provides sufficient heat for your underfloor system to act as the primary heat source in rooms with standard levels of insulation. Like their Loose Wire Kits, Warmup’s Sticky Mat comes with a lifetime warranty and the SafetyNet installation guarantee.
Kit combinations are available for room sizes up to 25m2. Prices start at £89.99 for a 1m2 floor space.
Thermonet EZ Underfloor Heating Mats
Thermogroup’s answer to the ever-popular sticky mat is the Thermonet EZ. At 3.5mm, the cables used in Thermogroup products are slightly thicker than those used by Warmup, however they do sport Thermogroup’s unique “Twisted Twin” cable technology, which increases the cables’ durability. Like the Warmup Sticky Mat, Thermonet comes with a lifetime warranty and cables spaced to provide 150w/m2 heating.
Kit combinations are available for room sizes up to 30m2. Prices start at £89.99 for a 1.5m2 floor space.
Carpet, Vinyl, Laminate and Wood Floors
Carpet, vinyl, laminate and wood are all viable floor covering options for use with underfloor heating. They do not make the system as efficient as with tile or stone coverings, but as long as the manufacturer deems their floor covering suitable for use with underfloor heating, you are free to enjoy the comfort of warmed carpet, boards or vinyl tiles throughout your house.
Whilst loose wire and sticky mat systems can be used with these floor types – provided you first cover the cables in a layer of self-levelling compound – the most popular way to heat a carpet, wood or vinyl floor is with a foil mat.
Foil Mats
Foil mats go one step further than sticky mats by incorporating their heating cables within an impermeable foil mat. The foil heats up with the cables, delivering an even spread of heat to your floor covering. This takes the place of the layer of tile adhesive or levelling compound that would perform the same function in a loose wire or sticky mat system. The great advantage of this is that installation becomes a much faster process. With no messy adhesives required, all you have to do is lay the foil mat over the floor and then lay your floor covering over the top.
The one drawback with foil mats is that they cannot be used with tile or stone floors, so they do not offer a futureproof system if you were ever to change your floor covering.
Warmup Foil Mat Underfloor Heating Kits
Warmup’s Foil Mat is a well-established market leader for underwood heating, boasting a thickness of just 3mm and a 15 Year warranty. The cables come pre-spaced to provide 140w/m2 heating, the standard heat level for foil mats, which is sufficient to act as a primary heat source in rooms with normal levels of insulation.
Kit combinations are available for room sizes up to 22m2. Prices start at £64.99 for a 1m2 floor space.
Thermofoil Pro Underfloor Heating Mats
The Thermofoil Pro is slightly cheaper than the Warmup model, and it’s also slimmer, with an ultra-low thickness of 2.5mm. Just like the Warmup Foil Mat, Thermofoil comes with a 15 Year warranty and cables pre-spaced to provide 140w/m2 heating.
Kit combinations are available for room sizes up to 30m2. Prices start at £49.99 for a 1m2 floor space.
Underfloor Heating Accessories
You’ll be pleased to know our range isn’t limited to the heating cables and mats themselves. We also sell a wide range of supplementary products crucial for a safe and efficient underfloor heating system.
Thermostats
When it comes to thermostats, our aim has always been to provide as much choice as possible. Underfloor heating kits can be used for a wide range of different purposes, and the individuality of the application is always reflected in the level of control required. In an occasionally used conservatory underfloor heating system, you may only need a simple on/off on-demand thermostat. But if you use underfloor heating to heat your entire house and need to ensure the heating reaches the desired levels at the right times, you will probably prefer a programmable, Wi-Fi controlled thermostat which allows you to switch the heating on remotely. At Heatingpoint, we cater for all preferences with a wide range of thermostats that offer something for everyone.
Insulation
It’s always a good idea to fit a layer of floor insulation before fitting your underfloor heating cables. This will make your system much more efficient, and can increase heat up times by a factor of 10. Many systems also require a layer of insulation to provide support to the heating cables and floor covering.
You might not have realised it, but there are actually many different types of insulation, so it’s important you choose the right kind for your floor covering, heating system and sub-floor. It’s not the most interesting topic in the world, so to make this easier we’ve provided a quick guide on every product page which shows you what type of insulation you’ll need. We’ve even provided a calculator so you can easily work out how much you’ll need.
Shop Today
So, with a wide range of products and all the expert help you need to take on any project, there’s no better place to start your underfloor heating journey than with us at Heatingpoint. View our products or give us a call on 0330 880 7008 to get started. There’s never been a better time to tackle those chilly tiles once and for all.